The aratoga Year 20 • No. 6 • Saturday, August 1, 2020 20 Saratoga’s Racing Newspaper since 2001 Clockwork Midnight Bisou part of monster Saturday card Alex Evers/Eclipse Sportswire 2 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 The Stretch. Breaking The Rules gets low and leads late in Wednesday’s ninth. Tod Marks Tod “No, the cake is baked.” Trainer Al Stall, on whether he was going to paddock school here&there...in racing Whitney favorite Tom’s d’Etat Thursday or Friday Presented by Shadwell Farm “Great line though. Now I want cake.” NAMES OF THE DAY 46: Winning percentage of the Whitney field. Combined, Photographer Susie Raisher, who thought she might catch they’ve won 41 of 90 lifetime starts. Tom’s d’Etat paddock schooling False Alarm, third race. The 3-year-old gelding, who races for Monty Foss and John Moirano, is by Drill out of Expect 269: Percent handle increase on Day 11 at Saratoga in 2020 “Come back to my therapy bench anytime.” Nothing. versus 2019. In the spirit of Paul Harvey, now for the rest of Trainer Christophe Clement to The Special’s Tom Law the story: Only four races were run July 25, 2019 and NYRA after a socially distanced Stable Tour Improbable, ninth race. The California-based Whitney runner canceled the final seven races of the day. Handle that day was under one of his weeping willow trees is out of Rare Event. $3,827,796 compared to $14,124,553. “He doesn’t like that bench, he loves that bench.” No Parole, 10th race. Owned by Maggi and Greg Tramontin, Clement’s son and assistant Miguel Clement the H. Allen Jerkens starter is by Violence out of Plus One. LICENSE PLATE OF THE DAY YOICKS, Virginia. The plate on Readers Club member Jack “My two neighbors are two young guys, Shug McGaughey and Hutcheson’s Subaru (with Readers Club sticker just below) is Bill Mott. I put up with them.” BY THE NUMBERS the cry used by the huntsman to encourage foxhounds. Clement, about his Hall of Fame neighbors 4: Starts in the Bowling Green Stakes (after today) for Sadler’s Joy, who was third in 2017 and 2018 and sixth last year. His “As they say, drive Japanese during the week and German on combined losing margin is 2 ¼ lengths. WORTH REPEATING the weekends.” “How come I’m not on your guys’ email list?” Chris Ambrose, when looking at Marylou Whitney’s Jaguar 40: Years since a fire ripped through Rockingham Park July Trainer David Cannizzo (you are now) 29, 1980; thanks to longtime reader Robert Cutler for the his- “I don’t think I’ll ever top it, but we will not stop trying.” tory lesson. “New look is absolutely top drawer writing. Well done.” Trainer Ken McPeek, on buying future Owner, breeder, veterinarian and reader Bill Wilmot Hall of Famer Curlin at Keeneland September The Saratoga Editors/Publishers/Owners: Sean Clancy: (302) 545-7713. [email protected] Joe Clancy: (302) 545-4424. [email protected] Managing Editor: Tom Law: (859) 396-9407. [email protected] Writers/Copy Editors: Photography: Tod Marks. Handicappers: Paul Halloran, Terry Hill, Mary Eddy, Charles Bedard, John Shapazian, ST Publishing, Inc. 364 Fair Hill Drive, Suite F, Elkton, MD 21921. Marketing: Samantha Loud. (410) 392-5867 Nolan Clancy, Ryan Clancy. Rob Whitlock. thisishorseracing.com The Saratoga Special, thisishorseracing.com, Thoroughbred Racing Calendar, The Best of The Saratoga Special, 2020 publication dates: Wednesdays and Saturdays July 18-Sept. 5. New York Thoroughbred Breeders work, Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred and a whole lot more. Plus Opening Day July 16 & Season Wrap-up Sept. 12. Call us about your editorial needs. SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL 3 here&there...in racing Presented by Shadwell Farm WORTH REPEATING “I had to go to Schenectady High School to get a work permit so I could work under 16.” Jockey Keith Asmussen about his first summer working in Saratoga “He does a pretty good job of suppressing it, you can tell he gets pretty wound up before a race. He’s an unbelievable coach and horseman, I can’t think of a better teacher. As far as pre-race instructions, they’re limited. Be safe, have fun, on top of a couple minute instructions.” Asmussen, about his father/trainer Steve “Clark Brewster asked me after Keith James rode his first race, ‘Did you look like that on your first one?’ I said, ‘Clark, I didn’t look like that on my last one.’ He takes after his grandfather and his uncle, not his dad.” Trainer Steve Asmussen about his son’s riding career “I still have my complete set of the 2001 editions when I was an obsessed Point Given fan, and you ran several great stories about The Big Red Train rolling into Saratoga. I remember at the end of the meet coming into your one-room office on Broadway and asking if I could pick up copies of the editions I was missing. I have never seen so many exhausted people. You were barely twitching!” Longtime reader Della Micah “We know you guys need content to keep this ball rolling so happy to do whatever you need.” Owner Kirk Wycoff when asked for an interview Thursday “The first day is a little eerie, a little disconcerting.” Wycoff on Saratoga 2020 Tod Marks A Miler. Jockey Luis Cardenas gets in some work on the main track before Wednesday’s “Saratoga, the racing here is a special thing. This year is obviously a lot different but the races card of races. are still special races and if you’re lucky enough to be able to participate in them it makes it that much more special.” Trainer Shug McGaughey The Chief POETRY CORNER “I asked Mr. Vanderbilt one time, ‘Boy, how did they run We need a horse like Tiz the Law The one at Belmont that I saw. horses so much back then?’ He said, ‘We didn’t think And wouldn’t it be grand anything of it, we thought racehorses should be racing, If he won the Travers for his fans? If he wins, with hands down we had horses and we ran them.’ Discovery would breeze Will he win the Triple Crown? a mile in the morning, get a train in the afternoon and go This is all, but premature But many fans are more than sure. to Suffolk Downs, Chicago, wherever he was going.” – Peter Finley – Trainer H. Allen Jerkens, 1929-2015 ������� ������� ����� ����� ����� ������� ������ �� ������ ���� Chair, Equine & Racing Law 516-741-6565 | [email protected] New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association �e�resen�n� o�ners, trainers, breeders, jockeys, dri�ers and horse�en associa�ons in business transac�ons and www.nytha.com �a�ers before the �e� �ork �tate �a�in� �o��ission 516.488.2337 and in the federal and state courts. Tod Marks Tod �����, ������, ������� � �����, �.�. I ��� ������� ������, ������ ����, �� 115�� I ���.����.��� 4 THE SARATOGA SPECIAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2020 & in racing QUOTE OF THE DAY here there... “He gets it from his mother. I promise.” Presented by Shadwell Farm Trainer Steve Asmussen, POSTCARD TO SARATOGA after being complimented on his son Keith’s manners Everybody’s in Florida. The family, thank God, we’re all good. I can’t complain, but I wish I was in New York. I miss Saratoga a lot, a lot. Lucy misses it, she’s working for Dennis (Zoitos, owner of the Morning Line Kitchen) here. I’ve been coming to Saratoga for a week the last few years. It’s so worrisome when you don’t see any crowd at Saratoga. Saratoga is my favorite meet. My first meet was with 800-523-8143 Mike Hushion, ever since then it was with the Chief. The best memory has to be the last Grade 1 the Chief won with Emma’s Encore. It seems like every video they ONE LUCKY DIVA played, we came out of the winner’s circle hugging each A racehorse makes many stops on the way to the track – foaling barn, weanling field, yearling other. It was big. I have three pictures of him in my of- prep, sales ring, training farm – and meets just as many people, but there are moments that fice, sometimes I’m tempted to take them down because I miss him more when I see those matter in a life. pictures. For champion Midnight Bisou, the morning-line favorite in today’s Personal Ensign at Sara- I was just telling one of my grooms, one year at Saratoga, we didn’t win any races and toga, one moment came May 14, 2010 at Pimlico Race Course. somebody put a duck in the car, a fake duck. He got mad. We ran a horse, Brampton, she had Her dam, Diva Delite, went into stall nine in the starting gate for the Black-Eyed Susan Stakes just tied up. I said, ‘She isn’t going to run any good.’ He said, ‘Trust me, she looks better now the day before Lookin At Lucky won the Preakness and was in the midst of rallying into conten- than she did.’ She won, it was our only winner at the meet. Cornelio Velasquez. tion on the far turn when she clipped heels and fell hard. Rival CC’s Pal came off the rail at the I miss everything, from the backside to the people to the racing to the corn they sell. Win- five-sixteenths pole in the Grade 2 stakes and into the path of Diva Delite. In a flash, the daughter ning a race there, passing the crowd and walking into the winner’s circle…nothing feels better.